Open‑Source AI Struggles to Find Sustainable Business Model
Open Source's big problem. Last night I went to a Y Combinator party in San Francisco and met an entrepreneur who is making a top Open Source AI model. He told me it is very hard to make money in open source. Yeah, it is cool being popular, he told me, but figuring out how to make a business out of it is proving to be very difficult. The Chinese are pounding the price into the ground with their open source models. Which makes it tough. In the old world of Open Source you could make money with them by consulting, service, etc, like RedHat did. But in this new world, he told me, it's much harder to make a good business out of it. Is anyone making a good business out of open source? What would your advice be to the businesses that are trying to support Open Source?
Startups Test Leaders When Engines Fail Weekly
Captain Sully says: “You’re only a pilot with something when an engine goes out.” Otherwise you’re just managing the routine. At a start up, an engine goes out every week. Buckle up, captain. 

Launching Standing Airlines: $100M Funded Low-Cost Travel
In the wake of the Spirit Airlines news, I’m excited to announce the launch of my new low-cost travel alternative: Standing Airlines. Raising $100m on $100m post ✈️ https://t.co/HgF36BnkDs
Commit a Decade, Or Don't Launch a Startup
If you’re not willing to dedicate at least 10 years of your life to your startup, don’t start.

From $169M Exit to Balanced Multi‑Biz Peace
2012: $169M exit but overweight and lost 2026: Running several businesses and finally at peace Here's what I am doing differently:

Buffett’s First Venture: A Pinball Machine Earning Passive Income
Warren Buffett’s most successful investment wasn’t Apple $AAPL or Coca-Cola $KO. It was a $25 pinball machine he bought when he was 16. By the time he graduated high school, he was clearing $50 a week in pure passive income (roughly $800...

Clean Energy Needs Thousands of Midsize Firms, Not Giants
Clean energy won't be won by 5 giants. It'll take a million companies doing $10M/year — or 100,000 doing $100M — to hit trillion-dollar scale. That's exactly how we got here. https://t.co/rdA6J5tqgJ
Grow Newsletters with Cross‑Pollination and Lead Magnets
This newsletter grew through cross-pollination, then scaled with lead magnets. In my latest podcast episode, Sean Devlin shared his full strategy. Watch it in full by searching "Nathan Barry Show" https://t.co/fqAI3q9ezP
Deep‑rooted Network Effects Beat Flashy AI Interfaces
ai-mageddon may prove more severe than saas-mageddon. the moats around cool interfaces and system prompts are far inferior to: social/team graphs, network effects, systems of record, permissioning admin tools, collaboration…and the list goes on. winners will have deep roots
Build an Ecosystem, Not Just a Model—Learn From iPhone
When the iPhone launched, Steve Jobs initially opposed the App Store. His team talked him into it... Look at it now. Frontier labs are at that same moment right now. They need to build an ecosystem, not just a model.
Celebrate Every $500, Not Just the Million
Your first $500 is just as worthy of celebrating as hitting a million. I recently crossed a billion dollars in total sales from my brands. It's a cool milestone, something to somewhat celebrate, but it doesn't really matter. There are times where I...
Nurture Your First Client, Then Diversify to Survive
As a beginning entrepreneur, very likely you will have customer concentration (often, that first large customer was the reason you were able to go off on your own in the first place). Once you're up and running, you have two missions: 1....

From ₹10K Startup to ₹10,500 Crore Empire
💰 FROM ₹10000 to ₹10500 Crores 💰 Meet Nanu Gupta Ji - > born in Punjab in 1942 & moved to Bombay in 1954. > started working as a distributor for Usha electric fans. > started Vijay Sales in 1967 with under ₹10000. Today Revenue...
Early Success Hinges on Usage Frequency, Not Revenue
What’s the most important metric early on? Not revenue. For Inhouse, it’s usage frequency: 👉 ~4 legal needs per SMB per year 👉 That frequency helped unlock their seed round Episode 248 is live 👇 https://t.co/NXvJ9ucWeW #SaaS #Startups #VC https://t.co/EJIHao6VL7
Bridge Young Creatives to Moderate Politicians' Social Media
Small business idea: Marketing consulting for moderate local politicians in Blue cities / states (I know this sounds nuts, but hear me out.): - Local politics, in particular, are more and more about social media (both for branding and as top of...
AI Lowers Barriers, Yet Entrepreneurship Still Demands Rare Risk Appetite
I really want this to be the outcome, and I share a tremendous sense of optimism for an explosion of entrepreneurship. However, I simultaneously battle with the idea that millions of people can just become entrepreneurs. Yes, the barriers to build a...
From Struggle to Solution: A User‑Centric Network
A network built for you — and the struggle that led me to build it. https://t.co/vul23OxiCF
AI Turns Bedroom Ideas Into $100k Businesses
The internet gave you distribution. Social media gave you an audience. AI is giving you a team. You can build a $100k business from your bedroom. With tools your parents couldn't have imagined. And yet 99% of people still think the...
If 1,000 Won’t Pay $100, It’s Not a Business
If 1,000 people won't pay you $100, you don't have a business. You have an expensive hobby with a logo. Here's the $100,000 validation test that will spare you months of wasted effort: Forget audience. Forget aesthetics. Start with one brutal equation:

When Success Feels Like a Fluke, Not Impostor Syndrome
It’s not impostor syndrome. It’s something quieter and honestly scarier. It’s the feeling that your success might have been a fluke. That you can’t actually repeat it. That one wrong move and it all crumbles. There’s a name for that. 👇Comment TRAINING if...
True Empathy Requires Questioning Assumed Customer Similarities
Koan #13 “I built this for people like me.” “Your customers write code?” “No.” “Your customers obsess over this night and day?” “No.” “Your customers quit their jobs in devotion?” “No.” “Then how are you like your customers?” And the student was enlightened. https://t.co/r4LMC80uW2
Customer Obsession Keeps Box and Dropbox Ahead
Box and Dropbox were supposed to be killed by Google Drive and iCloud. They survived because they were obsessed with their customers. If you have passion and focus, you will outperform them. Every time.
AI Agents Spark Startup Surge, Outpacing Job Losses
Stripe data shows (A) startups incorporations way up, and (B) startups in AI seeing faster-growing revenue than is historically normal For now, AI agents are better at creating firms than destroying jobs
Solo Clarity Beats Agency Overhead: Small Is Leverage
A single person with: Clear thinking, a strong offer, and consistent execution can out-earn a 10-person agency with overhead, meetings, and consensus paralysis. Small isn't a disadvantage anymore It's leverage
Enforce Standards Daily to Stop Performance Drift
I have a clear goal for my portfolio of digital writing businesses to hit $10,000,000 in annual revenue this year. But as an organization, we need to become the versions of ourselves capable of achieving this. ...

4‑month SaaS Hits $6k Revenue, Time to Scale
Wow I just realized that my 4 months old SAAS crossed $6000 in total revenue. I guess I need to build more.

Single Value Focus Locks In Hard‑to‑Change Decisions
When a company embarks on a particular value prop, they will then optimize their entire business around serving that value prop. This allows them to fully optimize for those sets of preferences, but it also means that addressing other preferences...
Let Your Orchestrating Agent Map Current State, Next Level
give this to your orchestrating agent, have it assess where your company is today and how to move to the next level 👩🍳 💋

Blueprint for Malaysia OPC: Growth Potential in JB
Came out a blueprint for OPC in Malaysia. Just sharing my thought and how do I see it potential grow if do it right. And we could be starting experimenting it in JB.

Single Email to Claude Builds Full For‑profit Business Instantly
The fact that i can single shot create an entire for profit business with claude via one email request to my bot infra and it works is 🤯🤯
Neglected Industries Offer Low‑Barrier, High‑Reward Opportunities
The best opportunities are in the industries everyone has given up on. Healthcare admin. Insurance. Legal services. 30-year-old B2B software. The bar for better is extremely low. The lack of glamour is the competitive advantage.
Seeker Entertainment Faces Setbacks While Still Seeking KinForge Funding
Sad news for Seeker Entertainment, though it's still trying to raise funds for KinForge. https://t.co/A5TPf1xACm
From Binance Founder to Jail: My Money Freedom Story
Read my book, Freedom of Money. From my childhood to founding Binance, challenges we faced, wandering the Earth, stories (from my perspective) about Luna/UST, FTX/SBF, dealing with US DOJ, SEC, going through jail (as the only person in US history...
New Tech Boosts Productivity only After New Business Models Emerge
Usually, new general purpose technologies don't have a big impact on productivity until people build whole new business models around them.
Technical Founder: Vision Architect, Not Just a Coder
Most people think “Technical Founder” = writing code Technical Founder doesn't mean "Person who writes the code." It means "Architect of the Vision Non-technical folks often think "Technical Founder" = "Person who writes the code." In reality, coding is often the smallest part...

Term Sheet Mistakes Can Cost Founders Millions
Once you sign a term sheet, the deal is 90% done. Every clause inside that document is set in stone for the next 5 to 10 years of your company's life. I've negotiated 100s of these as a startup lawyer, and I've...

Rejected Today,
In 2009, he was rejected by both Twitter and Facebook. He positively tweeted about being rejected. In 2014, he sold his company WhatsApp to Facebook for $19 billion. You will be rejected. Winning is all about maintaining a positive attitude, Be...
AI Founders Must Confront These Critical Self‑assessment Questions
Elad Gil on the tough questions AI founders need to ask themselves right now. @eladgil https://t.co/6XpxEoKDNy
Exponential Benefits, Falling Costs Spark Business Explosion
today we have big companies solving big problems because the benefits associated with that business are able to exceed its costs. but what if our ability to create and maintain new benefits increase exponentially just as the cost to create...

Fortnite Leader Launches Stealth EdTech to Empower Millions
“You can’t leisure yourself to meaning.” — LucasArts & Epic Games President Paul Meegan, reflecting on six months of attempted retirement before reenlisting the core Fortnite team...
Founders' Mental Health Crisis: 72% Affected, 81% Silent
72% of founders say startup life has hurt their mental health. 81% never talk about it. I'm matching donations to the Kabila Founder Mental Health Fund up to $25K through May. Free Chapter 4 download (my mental health story). https://t.co/0pB7XWRv4w
Insider Exposes Fermi’s Hype: Project Was Never Viable
After stepping down, Fermi America's CEO was officially fired today. @CarolineBGolin knows the data center industry as well as anyone. After leaving Google, she was approached by investors who wanted to know if Fermi was legit. She told them it wasn't...
Say Yes to Your Idea, Reap Real Results
Coming back to this story of my university teacher a few times a year. During our last class before the exams, he asked each and every student where they’d want to work and what business they’d want to build. Having formal experience...
Great Results Need Patience, Not Perfect Timelines
Maybe I'm just slow. But a bit of founder wisdom I've really learned these past 3 years: Every successful company initiative we've done...it takes 3-6 months longer than I predicted it would take. Often, as a founder I can accurately predict...
Seeking Co‑Founder CTO for Early‑Stage Insurance Startup
We have an exceptional co-founder / founding CTO opportunity in @2048vc portfolio company in the insuarance space. CEO has super strong founder market fit, lots of industry connections and experience and the company is very much off the ground. Ideal candidate has...
AI's New Innovator's Dilemma: Products Threaten Their Own Customers
The new innovator’s dilemma A founder told me about meeting with the CEO of a large vertical software company. She walked away realizing he was in a tough place: to fully harness AI in his hero product would mean...

Merging Two Form Versions Ends Major UX Debt
Confession For years Senja had two versions of testimonial forms: Classic and 2.0 Every user had to pick. Every support convo started with "which one are you on?" Every flow got built twice. Today we're merging them. All 34,000. This is the biggest technical...
Consistent Updates Signal Accountability and Proactive Leadership
I don’t worry about my founders who send consistent updates. They are on top of their business and numbers. Even if things aren’t going well, they own it and seek advice versus ignore and hope things get better. If...
10 Red Flags You’re Stuck in Manager Mode
Manager Mode -> Founder Mode -> Native Mode 10 Signs you're not in Native Mode: 1. Your cfo isn’t freaking out about the token bill 2. Budget allocation still roughly equals headcount allocation 3. You haven't changed how you draw your org chart 4. You...
Revamping Offers to Align Better with Market Demand
Don't mind me... Just restructuring all of my offers to fit the market a littleeeee better.